


Seventeen Cats

by Lyri



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Cats, Crack, Fluff, M/M, Post-Season 4, alternate Season 5 and after, seriously this is just crack and nothing more, very minor spoilers for season 5 and after
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-22
Updated: 2017-04-22
Packaged: 2018-10-22 17:46:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10701972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyri/pseuds/Lyri
Summary: There are seventeen cats in Stiles' basement.





	Seventeen Cats

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on a writing challenge set that my friend bought me for my birthday a few years ago. There are a selection of cards that each have a line and the premise of the game is to write a story in which the line on the card is the first line of the story. This was the line on the first card:
> 
> 'There are seventeen cats in ____'s basement'
> 
> I couldn't help myself, lol. 
> 
> I wrote this not long after getting the set, just over two years ago, so before S5 even aired, I think. It was handwritten and I found it this week after losing it altogether, so I decided to type it up and post it. Nothing was really changed from the time I wrote it to typing it up, other than adding one or two details about S5 and after (mostly Kira's leaving).
> 
> Anyway, I don't even know, lmao. I remember it being more crack-y than what I have here, I obviously tried to make it at least a little emotional and not as crazy, but seriously...it's still crazy and I apologize unreservedly, lol.

There are seventeen cats in Stiles' basement.

Before this moment, Derek had been unaware that Stiles and his father even _had_ a basement, but as he stands on the Stilinski's front stoop, psyching himself up to ringing the doorbell, Derek can clearly hear seventeen cats mewling and crying and the sound is definitely coming from the direction of where a basement would be.

Derek has never been more confused.

 _Alright, that's a damn lie_ , he thinks to himself. Except, the last time he felt this conflicted, he ran away and climbed into a car with a beautiful woman and put Beacon Hills – and Mexico – in the rear-view mirror. 

Derek knows why he ran away, he's grown and matured enough during the last year and change to admit that, at least to himself. He was...achieving the full shift, becoming one with his wolf for the first time ever, it really did a number on him, turned him inside out and made him see the world differently. 

But it was the moment right before that that confused Derek the most. That look he'd shared with Stiles, that... _moment_ , when something passed between them, when Stiles almost chose staying with Derek over saving Scott.

That was the moment that Derek didn't want to face. Not at that moment in time.

He'd run for over a year, pretending with Braeden, pretending that finding the Desert Wolf – finding himself – was more important than everything else.

The fact that the Desert Wolf – Malia's mom – had made her way back to Beacon Hills while Derek was in Canada proves how much effort Derek actually put into finding the damn coyote.

Which is to say, none at all, even after he and Braeden had split up to follow different leads, the mercenary following campfire stories that would take her back to the West Coast while Derek's took him north, towards family he'd forgotten he had.

Derek admit now that it was all bullshit.

Braeden – ex-US Marshal that she was – clearly had no trouble tracking down Corrine on her own, had never needed – and probably didn't want – Derek's help, but she'd indulged Derek anyway, and for that, he'll always be grateful.

But now, more than a year has past, he hasn't seen Braeden in months, and the family he'd found in Canada – his father's cousin and her wife – , Derek had come to realize they weren't actually family – or pack – at all. They never could be, what with both of them being human and forging a bond over the fact that they were both born into werewolf families and yet not at the same time. He didn't fit there.

Derek needed the comfort of pack, of other wolves, other weres, to help he with his new found ability and so, it was with some trepidation that Derek packed his bags and made the long trek back home.

It had been strange, that moment in Mexico, when Derek finally acknowledged Scott as his Alpha with a simple nod of his head. He hadn't acknowledged an Alpha since Laura, had never acknowledged an Alpha he wasn't related to, and to make that leap with Scott, a True Alpha, was something Derek wasn't really prepared for, the connection that had formed almost instantaneously.

Even with the hundreds and thousands of miles Derek put between himself and the pack, he could still feel that connection, he knew when Scott was happy, and when he was devastated over some loss that Derek doesn't want to think about.

The connection is strong, as strong as it had been with his mother, and now that he's back in Beacon Hills, Derek is anxious to work on that connection, to build on it, strengthen it, to get back to being the kind of Beta he'd been under his mother and Laura.

But first, he has to deal with Stiles.

And the cats.

Derek doesn't bother knocking, Stiles is the only person he can hear in the house and he's in the basement with the cats, so he lets himself inside and down the stairs in the kitchen that lead under the house.

The final step squeaks when he steps on it and Stiles startles, whirling around to face the apparent intruder and falling on his ass somewhere along the way.

“Jesus Christ! What the hell are you doing here?!” Stiles yells, scrambling back to his feet.

“I came by to-”

Derek is cut off by Stiles punching him in the face.

“Ow.”

“Where the hell have you been?! You've been gone for over a year, Derek! A whole year! The only reason we were sure you were even alive was because Scott was convinced that he would know if you weren't.”

Derek nods. “He would have. I felt it when...when someone...”

It's Stiles' turn to nod. “Kira left. She lost control of her powers and she joined a skinwalker tribe to learn. She didn't know how long that would take and considering kitsunes live so damn long, she thought it would be better to break her connection to the pack. It messed Scott up for a while.”

“Looks like he isn't the only one who's had to go through some stuff,” Derek says softly.

Stiles squares his shoulders and ignores the jibe. “Are you going to tell me where you've been?”

Derek shrugs. “Around. Traveling with Braeden for a while before-” He cuts himself off with a shake of his head.

“Before?” Stiles prompts, taking a step forward, crossing the distance between them.

“When people become obsessed with something, they're hard to be around. The only thing they want to do, the only thing they want to talk about, is the clues they've come across and what the next move should be. Finding the Desert Wolf became Braeden's life and there wasn't really room in it for anyone else, me included.”

“I'm sorry,” Stiles says, and by the beat of his heart, Derek can tell that he means it. “But, you know, Malia and Braeden found her and Malia killed her, so...”

Derek shakes his head, deciding not to focus on the fact that Malia killed her own mother for the moment. “Thanks, but we split up months ago, so it's not like there's anything there, really. Besides, it's not like I was in love with her or anything. She was fun, a nice woman and someone I could trust. Yeah, I was a little bummed when I realized that it was never going to work between us but I'm a big boy. I picked myself up and moved on.”

“Moving on sounds...too easy for someone like me,” Stiles says with a snort.

Derek cocks his confused. “You and Malia...?”

“We broke up,” Stiles admits, “a while ago. Some shit went down and I realized that we didn't really work as a couple; we're too different. Malia thinks in straight lines, whereas all I ever see are curves and turns and waves. We're friends, always will be, but we never should have been more than that.”

Derek looks around the basement, at the cardboard boxes lined along one wall. “So, is that what this is all about? I can hear the cats from down the block.”

He can't, but Stiles doesn't need to know that.

Stiles blushes and his heart-rate picks up. “Uh, can I plead the fifth on that one?”

“Stiles...”

He sighs. “I don't even know, man. I just...I know I'm not the only single member in the pack, but...”

“Seriously?” Derek squawks. “Stiles, you're eighteen, why are you even thinking about this?”

“I said I don't know, Derek. I just...Danny and Ethan came back, did you know that? Still as cute and loved up as ever. Jackson moved back in with his mom and he and Lydia were back together almost immediately. Isaac came back to town for protection because he pulled a fucking Scott and fell in love with some hunter's son and now the only thing keeping him safe is the fact that he's pretty much Argent's ward and no one from Eliot's family wants to go up against him and a True Alpha at the same time. I mean, fuck man, even my dad and Scott's mom are getting some while I'm sitting here looking pathetic.”

“Your dad and Scott's mom?” Derek asks, because, yeah, he could see that happening given all the time they've spent together over the years, but Stiles is shaking his head.

“No, my dad and Lydia's mom and Scott's mom and Argent. It was a whole thing, it's very weird. No one's handling it well.”

“That's, um...huh.” Derek frowns at nothing for a second, taking that in, trying to imagine it in his mind's eye, Melissa McCall and Chris Argent, but in the end, he gives up. “And that's what this is about? You're dad starts dating and you decided to go out and buy seventeen cats?”

Stiles stares at him open mouthed for a second. “There's seventeen?!”

“You went out an got a bunch of cats because you're suddenly single?”

“No...I mean, yeah. Sort of.” Stiles scrapes his hands through his hair. “It just recently occurred to me that I can pretty much never date anyone outside of the pack, because I'll have to always keep secrets from them, lie to them. I wouldn't want to some poor innocent person to get mixed up in this shit show of a world. Then I realized that, currently, the only single people in my pack are my ex-girlfriend, my best friend and you.”

“And that leads to cats how?”

Stiles laughs, bitter sounding and harsh. “I figured I'd just embrace my life as a crazy cat lady and start early.” There's a blush staining Stiles' cheeks and he avoids Derek's gaze even as he talks.

Derek can't help but smile. “Stiles, what did you do?”

Stiles sighs, like the weight of the world is on his shoulders. “I bought a cat.”

“How many cats?”

“Four.”

Derek bites down on his grin. “From where?”

Stiles rolls his eyes. “I bought four cats from a guy on Craigslist, alright?!”

Derek laughs outright and he can't help but notice how Stiles seems to stare at him when he does, but he ignores it for the moment while he crosses the room to the boxes and looks inside.

All four cats have given birth in the last week, as far as Derek can tell. “Jesus, Stiles.”

“What?” Stiles throws his hands in the air. “How the hell was I supposed to know that all of the cats I bought would be pregnant? What am I? A fucking mind-reader?!”

“And you didn't think it was just a little bit suspicious that a guy was selling four cats on a stupidly shady website?”

“He said he was moving across the country and he couldn't take them with him.”

“More like some tom cat knocked them all up and he didn't want to deal with it.”

“God, I suck at life.” Stiles sinks back down to the floor, dropping his head in his hands. 

Derek takes a deep breath and sits down next to him. “You don't suck at life, Stiles. You're eighteen, you haven't even had a life yet.”

“The one relationship I've had started in the basement of a mental institution while I was possessed by the spirit of a fox demon. That's not exactly a ringing endorsement about my choices in life. And this isn't exactly helping.” 

“And that relationship lasted for almost two years and ended on good enough terms that you're still calling her pack, family,” Derek counters.

Stiles snorts again. “Hey, at least I'm not as bad as Scott, right? He's still holding out hope that Kira's gonna come back to him, even though neither her nor her mom has any idea how long it's going to take for her to master her powers. Kira doesn't age like normal people, she could spend a hundred years in the desert and come back looking exactly the same.”

“I actually didn't know that,” Derek admits with a frown.

“Kira's mom's like...nine hundred years old.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, which is about the same length of time it's going to take me to find someone else who actually want to date me. I never should have broken up with Malia, now I'm going to be alone and miserable for the rest of my life. Me and my...fuck, my seventeen cats.”

“You know that's not true.”

“Do I?”

Derek takes a deep breath and really thinks about what he wants to say, wondering how Stiles is going to take it, but needing to get the words out there anyway.

“Stiles, do you really think that Malia is the love of your life, the person you wanted to spend the rest of forever with? Or are you just settling for her because you don't want to be alone and she's safe?”

Stiles narrows his eyes. “When did you get so fucking insightful?”

Derek shrugs but stays silent, just wanting Stiles to answer.

Finally, Stiles sighs. “Maybe I thought I couldn't have the person I really wanted and Malia was...God, that makes me sound like a fucking asshole. Malia deserves so much better than me, everyone in the world deserves better than me. I deserve to be alone.”

“Stiles...” Derek tries but Stiles shakes his head. 

“Doesn't matter now, I've got seventeen fucking cats to look after, who's gonna wanna deal with that?”

“You'd be surprised.” Derek reaches his hand into the closest box and scratches his fingers through the orange fur on top of the mama cat's head. 

Stiles giggles. “I would have thought werewolves and cats would be un-mixy things.”

“Cora had so many cats when we were growing up. She was always rescuing strays and making everyone else take care of them.”

“Sounds familiar,” Stiles whispers and Derek acknowledges the similarities.

It's quiet for a few minutes, nothing but the sounds of mewling kittens and Stiles' heartbeat filling Derek's head.

Finally, Stiles sucks in a deep breath. “Derek, about Mexico...”

“You mean my amazing transformation?”

“No.”

Derek looks at Stiles, really looks at him, and see the same expression on Stiles' face as he did that night in Mexico, when he urged Stiles to save Scott when he knew Stiles would have rather stayed with him.

“Stiles-”

“No,” Stiles interrupts. “No, Derek, because I know that there was something there, something that we should have talked about.”

“You were with Malia,” Derek presses.

Stiles scrambles up onto his knees. “But I'm not anymore. I wouldn't have been at all, ever, if...”

Derek sighs. He's stopped lying to himself a while ago and admitted to himself that he has feelings for Stiles. Has had feelings for Stiles right from the beginning, from the moment they me in the Preserve. 

But Derek's own hang ups – as well as the fact that Stiles was underage – stopped him from doing anything about those feelings. And when he'd finally come to terms with the fact that liking someone younger than he was didn't make him like Kate, Stiles already dating Malia.

Or so Derek had thought, anyway. He shakes his head.

“You don't want to be with me, Stiles.”

“Oh, really? You know that for sure? You develop mind reading skills as well as the ability to turn into Fido?”

Derek attempts to glare at the man this boy has become. “There might not be a steering wheel around, but I'm sure I can find something appropriate to slam your head into.”

Stiles grins. “How about I just slam my lips against your lips?”

Derek sputters, but before he can come up with any sort of excuse or protest, Stiles kisses him.

Derek has kissed a fair few people in his time, from Paige to Kate, Jennifer to Braeden, those few one night stands when he and Laura were in New York, but kissing Stiles, it's like nothing Derek has ever experienced. He can't even describe it. It's like something he didn't even know he needed in his life.

Except he did know. He's known for a while now, just what he was missing out on with Stiles not being part of his life the way he wanted.

“Wow,” Stiles breathes against his lips when he pulls away just enough to talk, “That was so much better than I ever imagined it would be.”

“I don't know if I should take that as a compliment or an insult.”

“Both, maybe,” Stiles admits gently. “I've thought about it so many time, what our first kiss would be like, imagined every possible scenario. From the wonderful to the downright disappointing.”

“I'm glad it wasn't that at least.”

“No disappointments here. Promise.”

Derek leans in and kisses Stiles again, shivering a little as Stiles opens his mouth and Derek's tongue sweeps inside. He crowds in close, one hand on the back of Stiles' neck the other pressed against his heart. He can hear and feel how rapidly it's beating as it thumps against his palm and it gets faster when Stiles wraps his arms around Derek's neck.

Derek's hand drifts lower as Stiles rearranges his legs until he's kneeling between Derek's and Derek is honestly more turned on than he can ever remember being.

He's thinking about pushing Stiles onto his back and stripping him down right there on the basement floor, when one of the kittens lets out an overly loud cry and Stiles laughs into Derek's mouth.

“I think someone's getting pissed that they don't have our undivided attention.”

Derek turns to look into the boxes again, at the tiny, wriggling balls of fur.

“Have you had these guys checked out at Deaton's?” Stiles is suspiciously silent and when Derek glances at him, he sees the extremely guilty look on his...on Stiles' face. “Stiles!”

“What?! I'm sorry! I just didn't want anyone to make fun of me! Scott still works there, when he's not busy saving the world. He's never going to let me live this down when he finds out what I've done.”

“ _I'm_ never going to let you live this down,” Derek tells him.

Stiles smirks. “Yes, but I have ways, now, of making you forget about it, ways that will not work for Scott.”

Derek blushes softly, but he manages a chuckle as he helps both of them to their feet.

“Come on, I'll go with you. I think the surprise of me being back will keep them from paying too much attention to the seventeen cats int the cardboard boxes.”

“Oh, God, seventeen cats. What the hell have I done?” Stiles groans and rests his forehead on Derek's shoulder.

Derek kisses his temple. “No more Craigslist, alright? At least not without supervision.”

“Har, har,” Stiles snarks and bends down to pick up a box. “Come on, put those supernaturally enhanced muscles to good use.”

Together, they manage to get the four boxes up the stairs and into Stiles' Jeep – which is actually still running, despite all it's been through – and they buckle themselves in as Stiles starts the engine.

“Hey,” Stiles says before he pulls out.

Derek looks over at him and is hit with such a powerful wave of nostalgia that it makes his breath catch in his throat. They've been through a lot, the two of them and this Jeep.

“I'm really glad you're back,” Stiles says, his voice hoarse. “Like, really, _really_ glad.”

Derek leans across the console and kisses Stiles deeply.

“Me, too.”

  



End file.
